| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: sure there's anything wrong, but when he finds out how the horse
he's after is burning the wind his suspicions grow stronger. He
settles down to a long chase. In the darkness, we'll say, he
loses his man, but when it gets lighter he picks up the trail
again. The tracks lead south, across the line into Mexico. Still
he keeps plodding on. The man in front sees him behind and gets
scared because he can't shake him off. Very likely he thinks it
is you on his track. Anyhow, while the child is asleep he waits
in ambush, and when Henderson rides up he shoots him down. Then
he pushes on deeper into Chihuahua, and proceeds to lose himself
there by changing his name."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: in safety for better times. Next year, on the 21st of January,"--he
could not hide an involuntary shudder as he spoke,--"next year, if you
are still in this dreary refuge, I will come back again to celebrate
the expiatory mass with you----"
He broke off, bowed to the three, who answered not a word, gave a last
look at the garret with its signs of poverty, and vanished.
Such an adventure possessed all the interest of a romance in the lives
of the innocent nuns. So, as soon as the venerable abbe told them the
story of the mysterious gift, it was placed upon the table, and by the
feeble light of the tallow dip an indescribable curiosity appeared in
the three anxious faces. Mademoiselle de Langeais opened the box, and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: being, snatch us away from our devotion to God's service, carry us
off to follies, offences, unkindness, waste, and leave us
compromised, involved, and regretful, perplexed by a hundred
difficulties we have put in our own way back to God.
This is the personal problem of Sin. Here prayer avails; here God
can help us. From God comes the strength to repent and make such
reparation as we can, to begin the battle again further back and
lower down. From God comes the power to anticipate the struggle
with one's rebel self, and to resist and prevail over it.
4. THE SINS OF THE INSANE
An extreme case is very serviceable in such a discussion as this.
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